After viewing mountain lions stilled in eternal prowls, grizzly bears sniffing the air with frozen noses, and hawks mid-scream, children have a common line of questioning when visiting the displays at theNAT. “Is it real? Are they alive?” Yes, the 7.4 million specimens that exist in theNAT’s research collections are real, and at one point they were alive. A third question arises: “how did you get them?” Before they were poised in glass vitrines, nestled in wooden shelves, submerged in alcohol, or pinned to paper backing, the biological specimens that comprise the Museum's collections went through a complex journey.